Tourism Dept woos filmmakers

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 20

Even as the SGPC has put a blanket ban on shooting of any movie on the Golden Temple complex since March 2016, the Amritsar authorities have invited film-makers to use Heritage Street, leading to the holy shrine, as film location free of cost.

Bollywood actors Bobby Deol and Kriti Kharbanda were spotted shooting some sequences for their upcoming movie “Yamla Pagla Deewana 3” here recently.

Deputy Commissioner Kamaldeep Singh Sangha, who is also project director of Heritage Street, confirmed that nothing was charged from the film-makers.

Golden Temple was a favourite with film-makers. However in February 2016, shooting a few scenes of Sarbjit ended up creating ruckus and inconvenience to the devotees. 

Following this, the SGPC banned the shooting of commercial movies “to prevent any disturbance”.

To woo film-makers, the state Tourism Department held a meeting with some producers, who were inclined to shoot in Amritsar, especially near the Golden Temple, but were hesitant due to “official permission” hustles.

Sangha said film-makers would be offered all facilities with negligible formalities.

“We convinced them that Punjab is a peaceful state and they should come over to shoot for their films. It is an irony that despite having good air, rail and road connectivity between Amritsar-Chandigarh-Mumbai, the tourism industry in Amritsar could not prosper. 

To increase tourism by way of promoting Amritsar’s heritage street is a first step,” he added.